Amiri Baraka was stripped of his title as New Jersey poet laureate on July 2, 2003, when Gov. James E. McGreevey signed into law a bill officially eliminating the position.
Baraka refused to apologize or resign despite the firestorm over his poem, "Somebody Blew Up America."

On October 2, 2002, he used his appearance at poetry reading in Newark to repeatedly attack the Anti-Defamation League for what he described as "character assassination" and "slander." At the time, ADL was one of the most outspoken critics of Baraka’s poem.

"Baraka's latest charges are absurd ," Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, said at the time. "Baraka continues to be the unrepentant anti-Semite that we always knew he was, and no amount of explanation can change the fact that he has bought into the big lie about September 11."

Baraka's poem, a lengthy diatribe about September 11,
repeats the conspiracy about Jews and Israel having foreknowledge

of the attacks and the false rumor that 4,000 Israelis did not show up for work at the World Trade Center.
The poem has provoked national outrage and has prompted calls for the poet to resign from various government officials, including Gov. James E. McGreevey.